Impact's crimson energy strikes Cerulean square in the chest, momentarily changing his "skin" from blue to violet. As the color slowly fades back to normal, for him, at least, he looks at the villain and smiles...

Here comes the Dog!Stong and brave!Here comes the Dog!The day he will save!

He crouched low as the bolt of lightning seared the air over his shoulder, he could still taste the ozone in the air. Dropping one hand down, and letting his momentum carry him in a drift along the wall he lined up and ran right towards the still crouching Surge.

"Thing is honey, lightning is fast. Faster than me, but in the time it took you to raise your hand to direct it at me, I went home and made a sammich. I even brought enough to share!"

With his left hand trailing the ground he ran counter clockwise around her in a blur of red and golds. Loud pops echoed across the room, each punch breaking the speed of sound. Head. Shoulder. Chest. Kidney. Ribs. Nose. Chin. Each punch punctuated by a single phrase.

"Eat it! Eat it, eat it eat it eat it eat iteat it eat it eat it ..."

His taunts trailed off at the same time as his punches, he whipped around one more time and ran towards the entrance of the museum out of Surge's line of sight.

"Ran! If Pacer follows be ready to drop a wall of water in front of him! Bug meet windshield!"

"If sacred spaces are spared the ravages of war -- make all places sacred. And if the holy people are to be kept harmless from war -- make all peoples holy." -- Norrin Radd (Silver Surfer: Requiem; J. Michael Straczynski)

The big woman winced at Redline's instruction, knowing that she wouldn't be able to react quickly enough to shift the wall of water between the two speedsters. She was just way too slow, "Be'careful'out'door!Hot!" she tried to say as quickly as she could, though her accent distracted and made it difficult to make out the individual words- but she knew she had to try to at least warn her speedster companion about the massive scalding cloud of steam she had created. Even if he wasn't endangered, soggy wasn't exactly a good look.

Kids, Lee thought to herself as she stepped into action. On the one hand she was pleased with how well her teammates were doing against the Professionals, on the other hand they’d gone off-plan literally before the fighting had even begun and the only reason they were doing as well as they were was because they outnumbered the Professionals by an appreciable margin. Most of them at least seemed to be trying to do their jobs and not get any innocents hurt in the process though, so Machine Girl refrained from yelling at anyone – at least for the time being.

Lee’s formative years as an adventurer (or ‘superhero’, as they called themselves now) had been spent in an era that predated the moralizing or witty banter that so many of the younger heroes seemed to feel obliged to engage in even during the midst of heated battle. As a result, she said nothing at all as she lunged forward to attack the giant reptilian metahuman who’d nearly killed a teenaged boy only moments before. The cybernetic beauty’s movements were almost impossible to track as she closed on her target because she was teleporting rapidly the entire time, her form flickering like a bad light bulb.

Her attack, when it did come, was as unexpected as her movements: instead of rushing in close and socking it to Rage with her famous metal fists, Machine Girl’s right hand seemed to suddenly transform into five long, rusted-metal tendrils which she promptly used as a five-pronged whip that lashed out at Rage’s head. The tendrils whipped around the scaled monster’s head with violent force and Machine Girl jerked back hard, dragging his head forward and downwards to collide with her knee in truly brutal fashion.

OOC: Since we’re already one (two?) rounds in and Machine Girl hasn’t acted yet I’m assuming, for simplicity’s sake, that she’s been using the Delay action. As such, she now holds the second initiative slot immediately after Redline, as per the rules on pg. 195 of the Hero’s Handbook.

Unless you say different, cobalt-blue, I’m including Lee’s Favored Environment: Urban Advantage into her stats during this fight. For this round it’s adding +2 to her Attack rolls.

Attack Roll:9+10=19 (Note that the whole ‘tendril’ thing is simply Machine Girl’s Elongation effect) Using All-Out Attack and Power Attack to shift her Defense by -5 and her Damage by +5 (via her raised Attack effect). With Teleporting Dodge (which grants her Total Concealment) her Defenses are at 5 each, while her attack is currently at +10 and her Damage effect is DC 32.

Grab Check: Free Action, using Fast Grab. Roll is 14+11=25. With Elongation 2 and Improved Hold, Lee’s effective STR is 11 and Rage suffers a -5 on his own roll to escape. If he fails by one degree, then he’s Vulnerable and Immobile, or if by two or more degrees, then he’s Defenseless, Immobile and Impaired. Due to her Improved Grab Advantage, Machine Girl is not Vulnerable or Hindered while maintaining the Grab.

If this works then Rage will have not only taken some more damage from Machine Girl’s attack, he’ll also be Vulnerable or Defenseless against any further attacks from Lady Freedom (or anyone else for that matter). So here’s hoping.

P.S. Also, I'm back from the bush territories! I've still got a few days of travel in front of me, but I'm almost done and back to business-as-usual.

Redline was blur of gold and red as he raced in, pounding Surge with repeated attacks, each one punctuated by a line from a Weird Al Yankovich song. (1d20+10=15) The flurry of blows disoriented and dazed the electrical themed villainess. She stepped back and reached out to steady herself against one of the metal mockup columns that buried themselves in the floor.

Machine Girl's whip attack on Rage slammed the huge reptilian's face into her knee. The force of the blow was devastating. (1d20+12=20) Warm red blood spread out from her in knee in splattering circle. The giant grunted at the power of the blow and seemed to be momentarily dazed.

Pacer in the meantime has poured on the speed. As Redline pulled out of one of his tight turns, Pacer slammed into him, striking him several times, almost quicker than even Redline could react. (1d20+10=22 DC 29)

I"m sorry for the delay. I still don't feel well, but I am feeling better. Thank you for your concern.

Well, the Professionals were on the back foot, and the teen heroes were safe. But Bass adjusted position and noticed that Impact was absorbing the blasts of Cerulean and the fists of Amazonia... what about his sound? He opened his mouth and re-calibrated for a concentrated sonic blast. Then he spun on his foot and gave Pacer a dose of sonics, just to be safe.

OOC: Early morning at work. So I will post my Toughness check then add a description of the action when I get home tonight. Toughness Check vs Pacer. (1d20+8=17) Failed by Three Degrees. So Staggered. Bruised (-1 Toughness), Dazed, and Hindered (Hindered doesn't stack, so still -1 Speed)

"If sacred spaces are spared the ravages of war -- make all places sacred. And if the holy people are to be kept harmless from war -- make all peoples holy." -- Norrin Radd (Silver Surfer: Requiem; J. Michael Straczynski)

Sarah sees Redline unload a flurry of blows and then run by, obviously planning another pass. However, Pacer is on his six and appears to be gaining. The daughter of Captain Freedom plots an intercept course and arrives just in time to step in and take the blows intended for the fastest man alive. "This is why good will always triumph. We have each others' backs."

As Bass unleashed a sonic attack on Impact, the air between the hero and the villain rippled with waves of force. For a second, they seemed to stand still in front of the raven haired beauty as they encountered some kind of field around her. Then they seemed to wrap around her and suddenly accelerate behind her to blow a huge hole in the mockup wall on the other side.

Cerulean smiles at Impact before raising a single finger in a just-a-minute gesture. Turning his head and raising his other hand he unleashes a blast of solid-looking blue energy at the restrained Rage.

Ran tilts her head, a thoughtful frown as she gazes down upon the poor dazed and confused speedster. She raises her hand high over her head on that one side and then slams her hand down, her fingers spreading into a cup (like a dragon palm strike) down towards the poor fool... slamming down on him with gallon after gallon of water, turning the full force of her firehose down upon his chest and head.. no doubt the Department of Homeland Defense would be proud.